Haggard, Linnie (Melinda, Malinda M.)

Born: 1840-05 Illinois

Died: 1917-02 Winchester, Illinois

Flourished: 1840 to 1917 Scott County, Illinois

Linnie (Melinda, Malinda M.) Haggard was a daughter of Robert E. Haggard. The father was a resident of Scott County, Illinois, by 1840, and kept a hotel in Winchester at which Abraham Lincoln was a guest during the election campaign of 1858. During his 1858 stay in Winchester, Lincoln penned a brief inscription to Linnie. In 1863 she married singing teacher Benjamin F. Cheatham. Prior to the marriage, Benjamin F. Cheatham had been paralyzed as a result of an illness, and he died suddenly in 1867 after a related attack of illness, leaving Linnie with a young daughter. Following the demise of her husband, Linnie Haggard Cheatham worked as a teacher. At the time of her death, she was mis-remembered as having been Lincoln’s sweetheart. Her 1858 encounter with Lincoln was dramatized in a pageant celebrating the centennial of Winchester in 1930.

Jennie Haggard Ray, History of the Haggard Family in England and America 1433 to 1899 to 1938 (Dallas: Regional Press, 1938), 21; U.S. Census Office, Sixth Census of the United States (1840), Scott County, IL, 154; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Scott County, IL, 87; Inscription of Abraham Lincoln to Linnie Haggard in Autograph Album; The Rock Island Argus (IL), 12 February 1920, 3:2-3; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Scott County, IL, 3, 26; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Scott County, 15 September 1863, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; Freeport Daily Evening Journal (IL), 14 January 1867, 2:2; U.S. Census Office, Twelfth Census of the United States (1900), Ward 2, Winchester, Scott County, IL, 7; Moline Daily Dispatch (IL), 17 February 1917, 9:4; Illinois State Register (Springfield), 18 February 1917, 2:2; Illinois State Journal (Springfield), 23 March 1930, 10:5; Gravestone, Winchester City Cemetery, Winchester, IL.